Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

In a world where the Avatar wasn't found, the Fire Nation took over two nations and they strive to overcome the last one. Water Tribe warrior Sokka seeks to fight for his people's rights, but he's captured by his enemies. His life is no longer in his hands as he fights as a Gladiator, and his fate will eventually depend on the Fire Nation Princess, who needs him for her own ends...

273. Chapter 273: S Air T-Secret Writings 2

Southern Air Temple/Secret Writings

2

The expectations and high hopes for the voyage they would undertake had certainly failed to prepare the travelers for the rather emotional, heartbreaking beginning of their journey. All five of them had shed tears as they sped through the skies, riding on Appa's back: Kino huddled against the railing of the saddle while Katara and Sokka held each other, slowly calming down after saying goodbye to their father and grandmother. The most devastated one, as expected, was Zuko: he kept his back turned towards the rest of the group, tearful eyes set on the ice down below, even after the Tribe was well out of sight.

Not even the scenery with the many frozen, sunken ships in the disastrous bay of the South Pole could bring Zuko out of his misery: Appa sped past it as quickly as possible, and before long, the sky bison hovered over the open ocean instead… and shortly afterwards, the South Pole was but a pale line in the darkness, too far away to be glimpsed any longer.

About half an hour after taking off, Katara huffed as she dabbed at her eyes, shaking her head against Sokka's shoulder.

"This… is not how I expected our big journey to start," she admitted. Sokka snorted, managing a sad smile at his sister.

"A lot of things won't be what we'll expect, I guess," he said, softly, squeezing Katara's shoulder gently. "We won't stop missing them, but… but we'll come back, alright? And once things get really busy, we'll have very little time to cry about how much we do miss them, so…"

"Huh…" Katara said, watching as Sokka wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

"You guys okay…?" Kino asked, softly: he hadn't been quite as upset about taking off as everyone else, as he had no personal family to say goodbye to. The people he was closest to were with him on this trip, after all… but leaving behind his first true home had hurt, nonetheless.

"Yeah, it's just… it's not as easy to leave home as I always assumed it would be," Katara said, with a sad yet reassuring smile in Kino's direction. "I… I think we'll be fine. Just got to get used to it, and… and get to work as fast as possible, yeah. Once we make plenty of progress…"

"We'll be able to set aside the sad thoughts?" Kino asked, smiling a little. "Well… it's something to hope for, at least."

His eyes shifted towards Zuko: the exiled Prince lingered on the seat he'd chosen on the saddle, still angled towards the South Pole, and for a fleeting, wild moment Kino wondered if Zuko might be downcast enough to choose to jump off the bison's saddle and swim back home… a rather ridiculous plan, of course, seeing how distant the polar casket already was. Swimming in those frigid waters would be a death wish, and Kino had no idea how good a swimmer Zuko was, in the first place…

"Zuko?" Katara called him, with more kindness than expected from her. He hummed in response. "You alright?"

"No," he answered earnestly, though without spite. "Won't be alright again until I can come back, I guess."

"Well, you will. We're on our way now… and we can do this, all five of us. Oh, rather, six of us," Katara said, smiling at Appa, who grunted in gratitude once she acknowledged him. "How long do you think it'll take us to reach that swamp, Sokka?"

"Eh, well… that depends on how fast Appa can fly," Sokka answered: he pulled his pack open and withdrew a map of the world from it, borrowed from his father.

While his sorrow certainly kept Zuko completely submerged in his thoughts, he still glanced back at Sokka once he heard he was opening their map. If there was one positive thing about taking off on this journey with the Gladiator, as far as Zuko could tell, it was the knowledge that he would be just as desperate and eager to reach the end of their voyage as Zuko was. He wouldn't be likely to chart a bad course, he'd do his very best to see them reaching that swamp as soon as possible…

"Alright," Sokka said, biting his lip. "Evidently, we go north. Depending on how late it is once we reach the first of the Air Nomad islands here, we can either keep traveling or stop there for the day. From there, we'd have to go east for sure… we need to avoid being glimpsed by anyone in Whaletail Island, and while I bet Appa could fly high enough to avoid detection, it's simply safer to take a detour this way… and we should avoid Kyoshi Island too, I suppose. There's Fire Nation troops stationed there, right?"

He glanced at Zuko, who grimaced and nodded. Sokka released a breath, rubbing the nape of his neck.

"Could be too dangerous to slip between Whaletail and Kyoshi…" he reasoned. "So I guess… east around Kyoshi Island, and then we'd speed off north again, avoiding Gaoling… there will be a few villages all around, but with any luck we'll be able to fly past them without alerting anyone if we're high enough in the sky. The swamp should be right after…"

"But we're not going to the swamp, are we?" Zuko asked, frowning. "We're going somewhere past the swamp… right?"

"Right," Sokka nodded, running his fingers over the coastline near the swamp. "I'm guessing they must have had docks of some sort, a secret harbor or so, where they would've received the escaping prisoners if they'd gotten away successfully… so yeah, I think we'd do best to travel until we are above the swamp, then check the nearby coastline for any suspicious locations where the White Lotus might be hiding."

"Didn't you say that swamp was dangerous in one of your stories…?" Kino asked, raising an eyebrow. Sokka smiled.

"Guess you were paying more attention than I thought," he said. "Yeah, it's… it's not the safest place to be in. But we'll be awake, and not inside the swamp itself, I figure, as we'll be flying above it… so I think we should be safe from the crazy effects of it if we keep a healthy distance."

Though perhaps it wasn't the worst idea to let the swamp affect them… Sokka grimaced and shook his head as the thought materialized itself: if that place could help him see the future, much as he had been warned of Rhone's attack… couldn't he, perhaps, learn about whatever dangers and problems they should brace themselves for in this journey?

It was a gamble, though, and not one he cared to make, for the damn place might just make him relive his worst memories instead. He breathed out and focused again, trailing his fingers over the map, trying to come up with alternate routes that might help them avoid detection safely…

"Uh… guys?"

Aang hadn't intervened at all so far, and his voice tone boded nothing good: immediately, all four passengers on the bison's saddle were on edge, glancing at their newly bald friend, who looked at them from over his shoulder.

"What is it? Any Fire Nation troops?" Sokka asked, frowning heavily. Zuko instinctively raised a hand towards his dao swords – naturally, he had brought them for this journey.

Yet they were surprised again when the Avatar winced and shook his head, raising his hands in a defensive gesture… or a gesture of surrender, instead.

"No, no, that's not…! Sorry, I didn't mean to alarm you!" Aang said, grimacing as he pressed his hands together in an apologetic gesture.

He swallowed hard before bracing himself for what he had to say. It wasn't going to be easy, especially when everyone was so keen on making their grand journey as efficient and fast as it could be. Asking for any detours felt wrong to him… even if he knew, in his heart, that it was the right thing to do.

As the others eyed him with uncertainty, puzzled by his strange intervention, Aang bent himself into the saddle, flopping on an empty space, opposite to Sokka and his map. The Gladiator raised an eyebrow, hoping Appa would be capable of steering himself safely without needing Aang's guidance, much as Xin Long could…

"Alright, I… I guess I should've brought this up sooner, maybe before we took off?" Aang said, biting his lip nervously. "But, well, we were all pretty down so far, so I wasn't sure how to say this, but…"

"Just say it," Zuko grunted, curtly. Katara shot him a reproachful glare that Zuko ignored.

"Okay, okay!" Aang flinched in his spot… and he seemed to shrink where he sat as his eyes rose to meet Sokka's. "I… need to go to the Southern Air Temple."

"You… what?" Sokka blinked blankly, and where he had been surprised and confused, at first, a hint of skepticism came over him now. "Why, exactly…?"

"Look, I know you'll think this is a waste of time and maybe it is," Aang sighed. "I know you guys want to do this as fast as possible and I don't want to make this journey any longer than it needs to be… but I had a dream last night. A vision…"

"A vision?" Zuko repeated, skeptical. Katara huffed.

"He is the Avatar, you know?" she said. "It's not that strange that he'd have visions, he's more spiritually inclined than any of us could hope to be."

"He's the bridge between humans and spirits… or so people say," Kino recited, with a guilty grin. Katara nodded approvingly, though her brother raised an eyebrow, questioningly, at the Avatar.

"Does this happen to you often, then?" he asked "Is that how the Avatar goes about his business of serving as a bridge between humans and spirits…?"

"Uh, well… not really?" Aang admitted, nervously. "It's the first time I have a dream quite like this one, and to be honest, even if I was good at meditation, I haven't met any spirits just yet, so I haven't really been much of a bridge so far…"

"And you just so happened to start being a bridge… now?" Sokka asked, perplexed.

"Well, I know it's inconvenient, but I think our journey is actually the reason why I started being a bridge, like you've put it?" Aang said, anxious still. "You see, I was… I was more conscious in my dream than I usually am. I could tell I was in a dream, and I knew exactly where I was: it was the sanctuary, Katara, in the Southern Air Temple, remember? With all the statues of the past Avatars…"

"Yeah… I remember it," Katara nodded, her heart paining her again once she recalled the heartrending grief Aang had suffered that day.

"Well… they were lit, somehow," Aang said, biting his lip. "It was like… a sign of something? And then I heard a voice inside my head, and it was someone who has been waiting for me for many years, and who will meet me at the Southern Air Temple, or so he said…"

"He? So it was a guy?" Kino asked. "Maybe… a previous Avatar is calling to you?"

"Roku was supposed to be my guide in my Avatar journey, but I… I haven't communicated with him ever before," Aang admitted, uneasily. "I tried once, before I went to the Water Tribe… then I never tried again, heh. But it's supposed to be how it works, so I guess maybe, as I'm finally going to do something to change the world, to restore harmony, he… he reached out to me?"

Sokka raised an eyebrow, as though gauging Aang's words, as well as his earlier request. He seemed unaware of the silence that fell upon the group as he studied the map again, pointedly… then he raised his head to find every set of eyes was trained upon him.

"Uh… are you all expecting me to tell Aang what he can or can't do?" he asked.

"Well… this is your big idea, isn't it?" Katara pointed out, with a shrug. "Whether you want it or not, I guess you're our leader."

"Me? Heh, does that mean you lot will listen to everything I say?" Sokka asked, skeptically, and Katara snorted derisively immediately in response. "And there go all my illusions and delusions of grandeur…"

"I'll listen as long as you make sense," Zuko said, cuttingly. Katara shrugged.

"Weird as it is for me to agree with Zuko, guess I do," she said, with a smile. Kino and Aang, however, appeared far less willing to question Sokka's choices.

"If you think we can't afford this, I'll accept it," Aang said, lowering his head. "I… I can probably find some other way to contact Roku, I think…"

Sokka huffed, his gaze returning to the map: he had no idea how fast Appa would be, if the currents would knock them off course, if they could withstand a flight long enough to see them well past the Air Nomads' Patola mountain range… perhaps he would be pushing the creature too far for a single day of voyage. As much as he wanted to reach the White Lotus as soon as possible, he couldn't ask for the impossible from their only mount.

"Well… the plan was to go to the Air Nomads' islands anyway," Sokka said, surprising everyone with his apparent concession. He pointed at the map, dragging his finger from the lower, smaller island he'd aimed for earlier, all the way to the Southern Air Temple's location. "It would be a detour from my first idea, but not by a lot. The Southern Air Temple should be empty, as far as I know…"

"There's only a lemur there," Aang said, with a sad smile. "Or, at least, that's all we saw when we last went there, Katara and I…"

"Then we shouldn't be in any greater risk of being discovered if we drop by, if just for a while," Sokka decided, breathing out slowly and crossing his arms over his chest. "If Appa hurries up, we could spend the night there. You can try to contact Roku, in whatever way you're supposed to do that, and we can set out on the next morning. Sounds alright?"

"Y-yeah… yeah. That… that's great. Thank you, Sokka," Aang smiled brightly now, his confidence renewed. Sokka nodded in his direction, with a small smile of his own.

"I'm surprised you're being this agreeable, though," Katara smirked, nudging Sokka with her elbow. "My brother the skeptic, helping someone communicate with his past life? I thought you'd even say there's no such thing as past lives or so…"

"Well, believe it or not, there is such a thing as past lives, and our perfectly bald friend here is the only one who can talk to his own," Sokka said, cheeks reddening as he glared at his sister, who giggled mischievously beside him. "Frankly, after meeting a giant owl and finding a massive library under a desert, there's not much left of the spiritually-skeptic big brother you remember, Katara."

"That's too bad: one less thing to make fun of you over," Katara grinned. Sokka huffed, elbowing her gently.

"Make fun of Zuko, then, seems like he doesn't believe what I say about spirits any more than he believes Aang," Sokka said, jerking his head towards the dark-haired firebender. Zuko scowled as Katara huffed in his direction.

"I mean, I could, but we all know Zuko's wrong about everything ten times out of nine, so making fun of him has lost its charm…"

"Ha-ha," Zuko scoffed, shooting a vicious glare in Katara's direction before turning his eyes towards Aang, instead. "I may not believe Sokka's delusions about giant owls, but I do know the Avatar's another story. I investigated a lot about you and your past lives throughout the years I was at sea, and… I guess I just want you to keep in mind this whole thing of communicating with Avatar Roku might not be easy at all. There's something called the Avatar State that, well…"

"Oh, I know about that," Sokka said, startling Zuko. "Isn't it some weird Avatar thing where they channel their past lives through their bodies, somehow…?"

"Eh?! That sounds so cool!" Kino exclaimed, looking at Aang in amazement… only for Aang to grimace, as good as shrinking where he sat once again. Katara, as well, appeared apprehensive.

"It's, uh, well…" Aang said, biting his lip. "Dangerous, rather than cool, I'd say."

"Quite," Katara agreed, with a tight-lipped grin. "He entered the Avatar State once… shortly after I found him, actually. It's insanely powerful… and very dangerous. So…"

"So, we should all take cover if you have to enter the Avatar State to talk with your past life?" Sokka asked Aang, who shrugged.

"Can't hurt, I guess?" he said, swallowing hard. "I don't know if I have to enter it to do it, but I still feel like something will happen, this time… but if it doesn't, don't worry, you guys. We can just keep going, and I'll figure out how to connect with my past lives in some other way. But if we have the chance right now…"

"We'll take it, yeah. No worries, Aang," Sokka reassured him, nodding in his direction. "If your past lives want to help us out, well… I guess the force of a thousand Avatars, or however many there might be, could be pretty helpful in taking down Fire Lord Ozai."

"I'm sure it wouldn't take more than one to tear him to pieces," Zuko said, bitterly. His attention returned to Aang. "You ought to think about more than just connecting with your past lives, though: you still need to learn earthbending, too"

"Oh, uh… yeah," Aang said, smiling and scratching the back of his head. "Guess maybe Roku could help with that? But if he can't…"

"We'll be bound to find earthbenders who'd gladly teach him," Sokka said, nodding. "I knew a few who probably would volunteer for it…"

"Too bad Haru's not bound to be available… he'd be the most easygoing teacher Aang could have hoped for," Zuko pointed out, and Sokka chuckled and nodded.

"Can't imagine him being strict with anyone, really," he said. Katara nudged him gently, and Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Uh… I haven't said much about Haru, have I?"

"I think you've mentioned him here or there, but all I know is he's an earthbender," Katara smiled. "Guess you should tell us about all the earthbenders you know and who might agree to teach Aang? We're barely getting started on this trip, and we should keep busy somehow."

"Yeah, I guess we…"

All five fell silent when Appa groaned… when a sudden burst of light seemed to break out over the darkness of the South Pole, rising in the horizon with a pale, weakened sunlight that still couldn't fully warm their cold bodies: they had traveled far enough north by now, however, for a sliver of sunlight to peek out in the horizon.

"The sun… huh?" Zuko said, closing his eyes as the rays of energy reached him: his inner fire was immediately stoked for it, as was Aang's: they really had come a long way from home, seeing daylight for the first time in well over four months.

Sokka smiled weakly at the sun, eager to bask in its rising warmth. He'd grow used to the sun's presence again soon enough, to the point where he'd take it for granted, he suspected… but right now, its appearance seemed to be a herald of change, of progress… it was a beacon that seemed to guide them further north, encouraging them to fly into the horizon.

Perhaps he wouldn't take the sun for granted, in the end… for under its warmth, he felt her closer to him. The power she had commanded, the flames she had evoked and controlled… just like every firebender, she had been connected to the sun and Sokka wistfully allowed himself to imagine the same sunlight that warmed him now might be touching her, too, binding and connecting them no matter how far apart they might be…

"Oh, that's nice," Kino grinned carelessly, still hugging himself as he welcomed the brightness and heat gladly. "Guess we'll be able to stop wearing our parkas eventually, eh?"

"Guess so," Katara responded, smiling weakly.

Their journey was only just beginning: the brightness of the sun seemed to encourage them, to dry the tears they still shed upon breaking away from the homes they'd grown to cherish so deeply. Without looking back anymore, without hesitating, the five warriors on Appa's saddle turned towards the future instead… a future in which, after many hours of travel, would bring them to their very first stop: the Southern Air Temple.

---

The large bedroom had once been far too big for a young Princess, and as she grew up, her new height and confidence still had done nothing to change how lonely she had been for years. Then, the room would occasionally brighten whenever it wasn't all that empty… whenever she received a certain visitor, on the rare chances in which they might spend any time together, whether in intimacy or not.

All that had ended once the truth about their relationship had been revealed, and the room had become a dreadful contradiction ever since: being in it remained preferable to stepping out into the Palace's corridors, and yet the darkness of the terrible moments she had lived within the room still haunted her, to the point where she had wanted to spend her nights elsewhere, not in the bed in which she had committed a great sin, where a great sin had been committed against her, too. Being locked within it had felt like another batch of punishment, another source of anguish and sorrow she could never recover from…

And now? Now, the room was the liveliest it had been ever since she had first occupied it.

"Okay, then… third time's the charm! We can do this, Princess!"

Azula groaned but complied, leaning forward as Song's fingers returned to work on her left shoulder: the healer was determined to see to the full amending of Azula's shoulder wound. She had already tried two different massages, and Azula hadn't reported feeling much of a difference yet. With her upper body exposed – her chest hidden behind her bandages – and her robe pooling at her abdomen as Song worked carefully over the wound, Azula simply waited, somewhat impatiently, for any of Song's ideas to pay off.

As of now, Rei was busy sweeping carefully after having wiped everything clean for the umpteenth time – how she never grew tired of her simple, repetitive duties, Azula had no idea –, and Azula followed her progress with her gaze as Song rubbed her shoulder delicately, particularly keen, it seemed, on linking back the severed chi paths between her neck and the rest of her shoulder. Whether it would work or not, it remained to be seen, though going by Song's enthusiastic behavior, it seemed she would gladly test every chi-massage technique she had ever learned if that was what it took for Azula to use her left arm freely once again.

After ten minutes of delicate work, Song finally dropped heavily on the mattress, sitting in front of Azula and letting out a sigh. Azula raised a skeptical eyebrow as Song smiled encouragingly.

"Any better?" she asked, after a suspenseful pause. Mockingly, Azula opened her mouth and waited a long moment before saying.

"Not at all," she declared, with a dry grin. Song's smile shifted into a pout, and she shook her head disapprovingly.

"Well, I suppose that won't be enough to heal you properly, but I'm pretty sure your chi paths can be restored, alright? I know it's been a long time since you took that wound, but chi paths usually are rebuilt over time, no matter how severe the wound…"

"Is it still likely if the wound were something as severe as, I don't know, a sliced-off finger?" Azula suggested. Song scoffed.

"Well, believe it or not, there are records of severed fingers being patched back up… though they're never quite the same again, it's true," she confessed. "You have to do it really quickly too, or the finger would be out of… hey! That's not what we're talking about, you have all your fingers and your toes right where they belong, so enough of that…"

"Uh-huh," Azula raised her eyebrows, raising her sleeping robe back into place: she guessed she'd grow used to being exposed this way before both Rei and Song sooner or later, but for the time being, she didn't want to be down to her breast bandages alone for longer than necessary.

"For now, your body has an irregular chi flow," Song explained. "As you already know, a few of your chi vessels, one of them a major one, were ruptured after your injury. This flow now… bounces back, you could say, and continues to seek other paths through which to reach every part of your body, whenever it hits the block caused by your injury. Even if the skin and muscle have knitted back together, the chi paths haven't quite regained their shape and bridged themselves back into their proper form."

"And you're sure this can be corrected?" Azula asked, with a grimace. "I'm not saying I won't try my best to heal, whatever you say I should do, I'll try it, but… do you have any guarantees, any certainties, that this can work?"

"Well, the bulk of the work was already done during your initial recovery, as far as I can tell," Song said, with a shrug. "The skin and muscles are back on track, as I said. Even if it hurts you sometimes to move your arm too much, the pain is bound to be a consequence of that specific severed chi vessel rather than anything else, at this point. But if we continue these massages, you'll start feeling better sooner than later as the chi paths grow and reach out to each other. Though… I may need to be harder on your skin than I was today."

"Really?" Azula asked, with a grimace. Song smiled guiltily.

"I'll try not to go too far, but… just massaging the surrounding area might not suffice. This is a pretty complicated thing to do, and, with no way to really know what's going on underneath your skin…" Song sighed, shaking her head.

"Don't you think maybe it's still the corrupted chi's fault?" Azula asked, with a sigh. "Maybe, if I had more chi than I do, those vessels would've patched up more easily."

"Well, yes, that's definitely the case," Song said, biting her lip. "Your chi flow was… rather, had to be extraordinary for so many of the feats I have heard you were capable of, Princess. Your chi count, as well, so… if we manage to restore some of it, it means there would be more energy pushing against the ends of the severed vessels, and potentially seeking to merge together once more. But, uh, well…"

"No chi regeneration should be possible anytime soon," Azula said, with a dishonest smile. "I'm aware."

"Well…" Song said, eyeing Azula remorsefully as the Princess's gaze flickered towards the windows. "I know I could be wrong, but… don't you think maybe there's someone else you could try to regenerate your chi with? T-to a fault…?"

Azula frowned and looked at her in utter confusion. Had Song been an actual stranger, she might have outright taken offense to her potential insinuation: she knew all too well how Azula had been regenerating her chi before everything fell to pieces. There was no one Azula could possibly build that kind of intimate bond with, or perhaps more importantly, she had no wishes to create any bond of the sort with anyone other than Sokka…

"What… does that mean, exactly?" Azula asked, giving Song a chance to explain herself before rebuffing her latest idea, outright: the healer recognized her reservations and shook her head, reassuringly.

"I don't mean… what you may have thought I meant," she said, with a weak smile. "Just… you have a very important bond with someone else too, right? A… a very deep and unique bond. So, I was wondering… if maybe whatever connection you have with your dragon is some sort of chi attunement, as well?"

Azula's eyes widened at Song's suggestion, her fears appeased upon hearing it out properly: was that the case? Was her chi attuned to Xin Long's? She dared venture a thought in his direction, in the way she had instinctively learned how throughout the years, and the dragon responded with a discouraged 'I don't know', to which Azula sighed.

"Well… maybe you're right, Wen, but I don't think that connection's existence will suffice," Azula said, lowering her gaze. "He's miserable, I'm miserable… at this point, I might end up corrupting his chi right back instead of him helping me restore my own."

"Uh, I doubt that's possible," Song said, wincing. Azula offered her a half-hearted grin in response, and Song sighed. "Look, I know why you're so discouraged, and I get that it's not easy to hope for a proper recovery but… but you know what? This isn't just for the sake of helping you recover: it's for the baby's sake too."

"The baby's…?" Azula repeated, blinking blankly and glancing at Song again. She nodded promptly.

"Chi is a complex, mysterious thing… but more than that, it's vital for all of us," she explained. "You already know all too well what the consequences of bad chi flows might be, or of lack of chi altogether: if you don't have enough of it, you could, well…"

"Die," Azula said, carelessly bluntly. Song sighed and nodded.

"And that's particularly true for pregnancy," she said. Azula frowned. "Proper chi flow is essential to ensure not only that the child grows healthy and strong inside your body… but to see to it that you survive childbirth, as well."

Azula gritted her teeth upon hearing those words. She hadn't even considered she might not survive childbirth, but it was true that a fair number of women lost their lives after birthing their babies. She still remembered just how fearful Ruon Jian had been when Mai had taken too long to deliver Yuudai, terrified that anything could've gone wrong… Mai had been in perfect shape, far more prepared for her child than Azula felt right now. If so… was she in greater risk of dying upon giving birth? She clenched her fists upon realizing that, as heartbreaking as it should have been, that thought didn't seem all that disagreeable. Even now, after so many improvements, death still often looked like a welcome escape, an easier one… a way to put a true stop to her father's torment and cruelty, for she would no longer exist, no longer be afflicted by it.

Yet, if she did die, how could she ensure the child wouldn't follow, right after Ozai realized it wasn't Zhao's? She had to survive, if just for a little longer… if just to ensure the baby could be taken to safety.

"Alright, then… what exactly do you propose for that?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows nonchalantly. "I can't really go visit Xin Long anyway, and I don't think he'll ever be happy unless my father releases him, which he won't, because he knows Xin could burn this whole Palace to a crisp in retaliation for the hell my father has been putting him through. Is it really worth a shot for me to try to visit him, especially when there's going to be guards at his refuge, who might just decide that what I'm doing is out of bounds?"

"Well… is it really?" Song asked. "Are you expressly forbidden from leaving your room?"

"Not really… it's not like I feel like leaving often, anyway," Azula admitted.

"Well, you don't have to leave it too often, but you can leave it to visit your dragon, maybe once a week, for starters?" Song said. "A walk, in general, will do you good. If you can't get all the way to the refuge, maybe you will on the next time. But I think that, if there's any truth to all the stories I've heard about what an extraordinary firebender you are, you shouldn't just linger in bed all day long, waiting for your body to be back in proper shape without helping it along at all…"

"I suppose you'd think that, but…" Azula sighed, grimacing. "Isn't it better for a pregnant woman to avoid moving around much, anyway?"

"You're early on, still," Song smiled. "You shouldn't do anything too risky, true, but you can take a walk and there'll be nothing wrong with that. If you're worried you'll get into trouble… well, we'll send you with an escort! We can ask Captain Renkai to go with you."

"Wow. Here I thought this plan couldn't be more unappetizing, and yet you found a way to make it worse."

"Oh, please, Princess…" Song said, with a lop-sided smirk. Azula scowled. "Captain Renkai will watch over you without a problem, I know he will! This way, if anyone sees you, they'll be sure you're allowed to take a walk or even visit your dragon just because he's around. Right?"

"Wrong. They'd sooner think I ruined the pure heart of another good man: the next thing you know, we all will be ordered to stay locked up inside this room, they'll put bars on the windows so we can't escape that way either…"

"Ah, well. If it comes to that, I guess I'll just make you do a few laps of walking inside your room every day instead: how's that?" Song said, with a dry grin.

Azula huffed and dropped heavily on the pillow, unsure of why she was protesting so much: perhaps she was simply scared of approaching Xin Long and endangering any real chances of setting him free in the future. The miserable dragon had been barging into her thoughts a lot less often lately, and Azula's heart weighed heavily as she feared he would grow to resent her, whether consciously or not, for the misfortunes that had befallen him. She blamed herself for it plenty… but if Xin Long decided to hold her responsible for it, she certainly couldn't pretend she didn't deserve it.

"Besides, you're a firebender, and firebenders need sunlight," Song said, gesturing at the window: a powerful noon sun bore down on the Palace, and Azula grimaced at the sight of it. "It's not a certainty that just taking in some sunlight would suffice to strengthen you again, but imagine if that would help you regenerate your chi, if just a bit…"

"Regenerating chi through sunlight… I'm a plant now, I guess?" Azula sighed, shaking her head. "I suppose it'd be handy to be one, all things considered. No need to move around at all, just draining the land around me for nutrients and water, and that'd suffice to stay alive…"

"Now, now, enough miserable thoughts," Song said, clapping promptly. Azula flinched at the sound and scowled at her. "Seriously, you're not allowed to be a trouble patient, Princess. I've had my fair share of those, and I thought that, if I ever had to serve you…"

"Oh, you thought you'd have to serve me, in particular, someday, Wen?" Azula asked, with a sarcastic smile. Song shot her a meaningful stare, and Azula returned it harshly. "I rather doubt it."

"My aunts prepared me to serve royalty ever since they returned to Ember Island, and there's only two royals left in this nation, so I, evidently, did think about serving you," Song retorted, unable to resist the urge to poke Azula's head. The Princess pouted in her direction. "And the best solution to deal with how moody you are should also be…"

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is!"

"Ugh, you're a pain in the ass."

"Ah!" Song suddenly clapped her hands together, a bright grin on her face. "It'd taken you so long to say that, I was starting to worry! Now I'm sure we're really becoming friends, Princess!"

Despite her irritability, Azula couldn't help but laugh softly, shaking her head at Song's ridiculous Wen persona. She knew, however, that Song meant well… perhaps she was right to suspect sunlight could help, too. Exercising might be a good idea, if just stretching her legs… she didn't want to endure that dreadful ordeal of running through the underground tunnels and winding up exhausted enough to throw up for it afterwards. She had no clue of what other strange hardships she might face in the future… so she was better off listening to her friend, she supposed.

"If this goes wrong…" Azula said, raising a finger, then pointing it at Song. "You'll be the one taking responsibility for it. If my father decides I wasn't allowed to leave my room after all…"

"I'll just let him know this is good for your health, of course!" Song declared, proudly. "Physician's orders: not even the Fire Lord's word can overrule them."

"Oh, please, for your own sake: don't challenge him, not even over something that's your area of expertise rather than his," Azula warned her, with a far more earnest smile than intended.

Despite all her complaints, Azula dragged her legs over the side of the bed and forced herself to rise to her feet. Song smiled in relief once she did, watching quietly as Azula walked across the room, towards her closet. Song nodded approvingly as the Princess attempted to select a clothing combination for her new outing.

"Getting out of those sleep robes once in a while can only do you good, too," Song called out. Azula rolled her eyes and shot her a skeptical stare.

"Not exactly a fan of the idea of wandering my room naked with all this company, but thanks for the suggestion," she said. It was Song's turn to roll her eyes and smile affectionately as Azula smirked at her lack of comeback.

The Princess took her simple change of robes to the bathroom, leaving Song to sigh triumphantly after finally persuading Azula to leave her bed for more than just a visit to the bathroom or eating her meals. As much as the Princess seemed at ease this way, her isolation was only going to worsen her circumstances. Fresh air and warm sunlight might not do much in the way of restoring her chi, but clearly, staying here had done nothing to improve her health, either.

The sound of Rei's broom brought Song back to reality: she smiled at the young woman beside her, who flinched and clenched the broom more tightly before smiling back nervously. Song had been serving Azula for over a week by now, but it seemed Rei was still intimidated by Wen, somehow. Song had expected her frequent back-and-forths with Azula would warm up the girl to her sooner than later, but it didn't seem Rei was all that ready to be friendlier just yet.

Well, Song wouldn't have much to do while Azula was on her walk with Renkai, would she? Perhaps she could try to start building bridges with Rei now, as she'd have a chance for it.

"Need help with anything?" she asked. Rei flinched again before shaking her head promptly. "You can share your workload with me, you know? I've got my fair share of cleaning experience and then some…"

"Y-you shouldn't have to… oh, you do?" Rei asked, puzzled. "But…"

"But what?" Song asked, encouraging her to speak. Rei blinked blankly.

"Aren't you highborn…?" she asked. "If you are, then…"

"Oh, well, now!" Song laughed, shaking her head dismissively. "That's not true at all, I'm not from a noble family: my family has been serving the Royal Family for about fifteen generations now. Which means that, as much as I learned all I did at the Sanatorium, I have to be able to do chores and pick up after messy royals, if they're messy. Though, with how you clean this place every day, I don't think Princess Azula gets to be messy at all…"

"S-she's not messy to begin with, I don't have to do a lot…" Rei said, lowering her head. "Don't worry, Lady Wen… I can do this job."

"No doubt, you've handled it perfectly so far," Song laughed, before shrugging. "But I guess, since I convinced Princess Azula to take off on that walk, I'll be bored once she's gone, and I thought I could stay busy if I helped you out."

"Well… there's not that much to do anymore, for today," Rei said, with a shrug and a small smile. Song huffed.

"So efficient. I ought to take notes on how you're so thorough with everything you do," Song shook her head, rising to her feet. "What now, then? Time for your lessons?"

"Oh, uh… not yet," Rei said, smiling before gesturing at the bed. "I… should fix it now."

"Ah. Point taken," said Song, glancing back at the disorderly sheets. She smiled soon and offered Rei a thumbs-up gesture. "Guess I can take care of the other side, and you of this one, how about it?"

"N-no, no need…!" Rei gasped, watching powerlessly as Song rounded the bed excitedly, as though making a bed were the most thrilling happening to grace her life in ages.

Just then, Princess Azula stepped out of the bathroom, clad in another dark robe not too different from the one she wore on the day she first met her midwife. Rei flinched, unsure of what to do when the Princess slowed on her footsteps and grimaced at the sight of Wen shaking the sheets out of place with unbridled enthusiasm.

"Are you planning to throw some sort of slumber party while I'm gone?" she asked her, skeptically. "I intend to be back before sundown, mind you…"

"Oh, I'm not doing anything quite like that, Princess," Song grinned at her, proudly. "I'm giving Rei a hand! She's most adamant about getting everything done properly, no help, no breaks…"

"Hmm, that is true," Azula said, glancing at Rei now. The maid bit her lip, ever nervous under the Princess's scrutiny. "Well, I know Wen is weird, Rei, but maybe if you overwork her by delegating your duties to her, she'll be too tired to talk as much as she always does once I get back…"

"Oh, I'd still talk your ear off through every chore, Princess, you know I would. Also, say what you will, I bet you just love the sound of my relentless voice!" Song declared, stubbornly. Despite her better sense urged her to act better, Azula couldn't contain a smile as she shook her head and made for the door.

Renkai jumped when he noticed the door had been pulled open: Azula's smile faded by then, as the guard turned to regard her with a curt bow… and to stare at Song utterly cluelessly as she shook the sheet to smooth over the wrinkles, to Rei's utter perplexity and amazement.

"Captain Renkai!" Song called, grinning and waving at him quickly before hoisting the sheet in the air.

Before him, Azula sighed and shook her head. Song seemed far too busy playing the airheaded goof right now, so she'd be the one to explain her intentions to Renkai directly.

"My clever midwife decided I needed sunlight, fresh air and… well, if possible, to visit my dragon, if I'm to ever recover my fitness and health," Azula explained, leveling Renkai with a skeptical stare. "I question that this could work, and that we'd get past the third corner before my father's men charge at us, but…"

"Your… your dragon?" Renkai asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Indeed. I am taking for granted that I'm as good as forbidden from approaching the refuge, but Wen believes I ought to do it," Azula said, simply. "I suppose, if someone knows whether I can or can't take walks, it's you?"

Renkai cleared his throat before nodding, hands behind his back.

"I've received no orders to keep you in your room," he said. "If they assumed I would fulfill unspoken orders, I can always claim I was unaware of them, as I am. A crime of omission, in a sense… though I'm not sure which side would be the guilty party in this case, to be honest."

"In current times? Safe to say everyone's guilty but the Fire Lord," Azula said, with a tight-lipped, false grin. "Then, you think we can do this?"

"If you wish to… we can attempt it," Renkai nodded.

"Awesome!" Song exclaimed, from within the room. "I knew I could count on you, Captain Renkai!"

Renkai blinked blankly behind his helmet as Azula sighed again.

"Let's just go, then. The less time she can spend pestering me about things I should be doing, the better," Azula said, though before leaving she glanced at Rei, standing awkwardly at the opposite side of the bed to Song's. "You'll be okay?"

"Oh! Yes, I'll be fine, Princess," Rei said, smiling enthusiastically.

"Take a break once you're all done," Azula said, with a weak smile of her own. "And I hope you can endure Wen's endless rambling: you're authorized to tell her to shut up if she annoys you too much."

"I…! I couldn't…!" Rei gasped, glancing between the two women warily: Song lashed out in outright laughter, halfway through fixing the bed's sheets on her side, and Azula smirked at her reaction before softening her smile towards Rei.

"See you in a bit," she said, nodding.

Renkai bowed his head towards them: he closed the bedroom's door after Azula stepped into the corridor. With that, Rei found herself alone, for the very first time, with the talkative midwife, Wen.

Unwilling to leave Wen to do all the work on her own, Rei set aside her broom at last and moved to the side of the bed she had been asked to help with. Wen grinned brightly at her once Rei joined her, smoothing the wrinkles on the fabric to ensure the bed would look perfect once they were done.

"See? We'll make a great team, you and I!" Song said, grinning brightly. Rei laughed quietly and nodded. "Honestly, all teasing aside, I'm nowhere near as highborn as you may have thought I was. I can help whenever you need me to. As far as I've understood, you're learning to read and write with the Princess?"

"U-uh… yes," Rei nodded shyly, and Song smiled at her.

"Well, I can give you a hand with your studies while she's out, better that than sitting on our hands until she returns, right?" she asked, as they tucked the spare fabric underneath the mattress smoothly. Rei bit her lip and shrugged.

"You sent her out… but you'll be bored if you stay here?" Rei asked, softly. "You could have gone with her, if you wanted to…"

"Eh? Oh, heck, no," Song laughed, shaking her head. "Didn't you hear her calling me a pain in the ass? She's moments away from banishing me from her room, or the Palace altogether. She needed a break from me, on top of everything else I said she needed…"

"Really…?" Rei said, blinking blankly: the mattress was finally ready, as regal and classy as expected, and Song nodded proudly at the result before turning to Rei again.

"What, you don't think so?" asked Song, amused.

"W-well… she's usually, uh, not friendly when she talks to Renkai," Rei said, biting her lip. "So… I guess I'm saying I thought that was what it looks like when she's displeased with someone? And, w-well… I don't think she's displeased with you. If anything… I'm pretty sure she likes you and is grateful to have you helping her, Lady Wen."

"Oh…" Song blinked blankly, straightening her stance as Rei smiled brightly. She couldn't help but smile back before long. "Well, I'll hope you're right, Rei. This is the best job I've ever had… shouldn't waste it just because I have a big mouth, right?"

"I don't think you will lose your job," Rei said, smiling and shaking her head. "I've made mistakes and the Princess is never mad at me for them, so…"

"Well, I don't know if it's humanly possible to be mad at you," Song laughed. "You couldn't be nicer if you tried…"

"O-oh… w-well, it is possible to be mad at me, I suppose," Rei said, her smile gaining an edge of nervousness suddenly. "But, uh… that's not important. Thank you for offering your help. You don't need to do it, but… thank you."

"Well, think about it: if I help you with your chores whenever I have time off, it means you'll be free to study even earlier than you were today," Song grinned. "Though you could also use your time to do something other than studying, can't be all that healthy to just work and study all day long…"

"I don't have anything else to do…" Rei said, with a shy smile. "Not really."

"Huh? Well, that's not good," Song huffed. "Alright, it's settled: I'll go find a Mahjong set as soon as I have a chance. Then you, me, the Princess and Captain Renkai can play together when we're bored, how's that?"

"E-eh… huh. I… don't know how to play that," Rei admitted. Song grinned and shrugged.

"We can always teach you. You'll get the hang of it quickly, I'm sure," she said, rounding the bed again, stretching her arms as she walked. "Alright, then… you're going to be studying now, I take it?"

"Ah, yes," Rei smiled, nodding.

"If you want any help with that, let me know, too," Song grinned. "As much as I've specialized on the medical field, I do have a lot of knowledge about various things…"

"Like… math?" Rei asked, with a slowly growing smile. Song's, however, froze on her face.

"Eh… heh. Not that much math knowledge, I'm afraid," she confessed, and Rei laughed but shook her head. "Goodness, the one thing I thought I wouldn't need to study in order to survive in this Palace…"

"You didn't need to," Rei giggled: she stepped towards the usual cabinets where she kept the papers she practiced with, the ones Azula had offered her long ago. "It's okay. I'll learn more when I can read more books."

"If that works for you, good, then," said Song, grinning. "Though I suppose I could teach you other things, if you're interested in anything else aside from math. For instance, I taught myself the right herbs to treat common maladies through a little song! If I teach it to you, you'll be much better off if you ever come across anyone ailed with coughing, diarrhea, boils, body swelling, a broken leg, or nasal congestion!"

"Really…?" Rei smiled awkwardly, letting her eyes drift towards Wen momentarily before focusing on the papers before her again: had she already gone through so many pieces of parchment?

She grimaced as she struggled to find any blank paper: so far, she couldn't find anything. She wasn't sure it'd be wise to use her available paper front and back, the ink bled out easily through the pages… surely the Princess would have a stock of blank paper somewhere, right? She bit her lip, drawing out the ink set the Princess allowed her to use, before opening other nearby drawers to look for any available blank paper.

"It is pretty complicated, you know? There's some schools of medicine that actually propose different types of medicine depending on the season," Song continued, rambling carelessly as she leaned against one of the bedposts, arms crossed over her chest: Rei had changed locations by now, rummaging through another set of cabinets she didn't go through frequently. "I wonder if the treatments could be more effective depending on the nation, too: each nation has ties with a season that correlates with their element, as you might know. Fire is connected to summer, air to autumn, water to winter and earth to spring. Feels instinctive, right? Summer is unbearably hot, autumn can be breezy, winter is freezing, and spring is when the earth comes alive… o-or, well, that's what I hear anyway. You don't really get much in the way of seasons in the Fire Nation, as we both know… uh, Rei?"

Song would have assumed the young woman had simply tuned out her chattiness if Rei hadn't gasped suddenly, setting down a written page with more of her typical nervousness… yet it seemed she was even more anxious than usual, this time.

"What's wrong?" Song asked, stepping closer: to her surprise, Rei, who had opened a new cabinet moments ago, stuffed the paper she'd been holding back into the cabinet and closed it in a hurry… and her eyes were full of fear.

Sticking to Wen's persona after something like that proved far too difficult: Song's brow drew together as she stepped closer, and Rei flinched once she noticed the nosey midwife appeared ready to determine the gravity of whatever mistake she had made.

"N-no, don't…!" Rei gasped, but Song frowned as she held back from reaching to open the cabinet anew.

"What happened? What did you find?" she asked, her voice more serious than before, but not unkind. Rei shivered and shook her head. "Rei…"

"I… I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have, I… I didn't mean to, there was just no more blank paper, s-so I thought maybe there'd be some there, but…" Rei explained, anxiously, gesturing at the cabinet. Song frowned before reaching to open it, and Rei winced. "Y-you shouldn't! It… it's private. I shouldn't have, I… t-this is why I shouldn't have learned how to read, I'm… I'm not allowed to read that, but I still did…"

"Read what?" Song asked, raising her eyebrows. "Rei, come on… you didn't do anything that bad, the Princess won't be angry just because you were looking for paper to work with. She told you to study herself, didn't she? You were trying to do it, nothing wrong with that…"

"B-but I…" Rei swallowed hard, guilt permeating her completely. Song huffed… then she pulled the cabinet open. "N-no! Stop!"

"This way, we're both guilty of the crime, and I can even shield you from the worst of it by reading whatever you read, too," Song decided: in truth, her own anxiety had flared up just now. What could Rei have found in these cabinets that caused her that much fear? Could it be anything genuinely dangerous? Incriminating, somehow? Anything harmful for Azula…?

Song frowned as she reached into the cabinet to find a strange sheet of paper among many, unfurled… and stained with tears that had caused some of the ink to run before it settled properly, rendering some ideograms difficult to read. Even so, Song picked it up and Rei's whole body seemed to go cold while the midwife took in the contents of that one piece of paper…

I should have stayed with you. You shouldn't have had to leave.

I don't know what I'm doing… why I'm doing this, why I came back at all. I'm worthless for him now. Just a vessel through which to gain more heirs. You made my best dreams come true, and now I'm trapped in the darkest nightmare instead.

The worst part of it is that you're gone. That I can't go back to you. After what I've done, I have no right to go back anyway. Be it for survival, for whatever sake… I feel more corrupted than the Bloodlust Spear. Broken, damaged beyond repair, when I never felt that way with you.

I miss you. I miss you so much. You shouldn't be mine to miss anymore. It isn't fair. I'm not supposed to want you with me. I'm not supposed to cling to every memory, but I'm too weak to do anything else. That's all I have left. That and the stupid, daft hope that maybe one day you'll return. Don't. Please, don't. I don't know how I'll ever look you in the eye if you do. At this point… break our promises, much as I already did, and find true happiness anywhere but here. You would deny it, I know you would… but I'm no longer worthy of you.

I've failed you. I'm trying to live with the knowledge that I did… but maybe I'll fail at that, too.

I'm sorry.

Song held the paper in her hands for far longer than she intended to… for much longer than necessary, her eyes trained on the final words. The unsent letter trembled in her grip, and Rei eyed her anxiously, fearful of what the midwife would say now…

"I didn't… mean to read it," Rei said, softly, bringing Song out of her thoughts with a start.

She gritted her teeth, nodding in acknowledgement of Rei's words before tucking the letter back where it had come from… a cabinet with a stash of several more handwritten pages that Song determined, this time, not to read a single word of. Before saying anything to Rei, she closed the cabinet and released a deep breath.

"Alright… well, neither of us was meant to read it. Pretty sure no one was," she said, sternly. "So, well… we pretend we didn't read it, I guess? And if she realizes that we did, I can take the fall for it, alright? If she's going to fire someone for going through her things, it better be the newcomer."

"N-no, I… I don't think she should fire you. Not when it was my fault, I…" Rei gritted her teeth, lowering her gaze.

"It's not your fault. You were looking for paper. It was an honest mistake," Song said, placing her hands on the younger woman's shoulders. She flinched at the contact, though she didn't reject it.

"B-but I wasn't supposed to read it. I knew… I knew it wasn't going to be useful, it was already written on, but it was the Princess's handwriting, and it's so much prettier than mine, so I just…"

"You didn't think it'd be something so private," Song said, with a sigh. "I mean… it is her room, so technically whatever she keeps here is her private business. We're the trespassers, so to speak… so I guess this is a lesson for us both, huh? Keep our eyes and hands to ourselves…"

"I wouldn't have caused any trouble… if I didn't know more words yet," Rei said, sadly. "I… couldn't make sense of everything anyway, but it… it wasn't my business. I shouldn't have tried to understand…"

"Oh, no, no, no…" Song said, startling Rei as she frowned sternly at her. "If the Princess taught you to read, she must have known it meant you might eventually read something you weren't supposed to. Everyone does that kind of thing, from time to time… and she decided teaching you was worth the risk anyhow. As shocked as she might be to know you read any of what she wrote, don't ever think you're not supposed to learn how to read, or that you're not allowed to understand things, Rei. Don't look down on yourself that much, alright?"

"But…" Rei said, grimacing. "Won't it… trouble the Princess? That I can read her letters… or her journal? I… I don't know what it was…"

"It was an unsent letter, I suppose," Song said, finally dropping her hands from Rei's shoulders. "I did read the whole thing, so… yeah, I guess she's just doing that to bleed out some of the grief she's still keeping to herself. No idea if it's working, though…"

"Grief…?" Rei repeated. "Huh. I… didn't know she felt that strongly about him."

Song blinked blankly at her companion's words. She raised an eyebrow, her heart speeding up upon suddenly glimpsing an unexpected sign that, perhaps, Rei knew more than she was letting on…

"You… didn't?" Song asked, tentatively. Rei shook her head, without any sign of hesitation.

"The way she acted whenever he was around… it looked like she didn't want him here. But in that letter, she said she didn't want him to leave? So, I guess…" Rei said, fiddling with her fingers. Song blinked blankly, puzzled by her words.

"Uh… wait, what?" she said, smiling a little. "He was around? Who are you talking about, exactly…?"

"Who…? Well, Admiral Zhao," Rei said, and Song's jaw dropped. "Am I wrong? I… couldn't read every word, I didn't understand all of them. Maybe she addressed it to someone, and I don't know who, but I just thought, well…"

"You thought she'd written this for… Zhao," Song repeated, blinking blankly. "Hell, that's… uh, you assumed that because they, eh, got married?"

Rei simply answered with a shrug: it didn't seem like she made much of the fact that her father was married to Princess Azula, as far as Song could tell.

"It seemed… maybe it was a sad love letter?" Rei said. "And I don't know why they're married, I think it was an arranged marriage, but… I've understood very few things since I came here. I'm still confused about everything more often than not, so I thought, maybe…"

"I see…" Song said, fidgeting awkwardly in place: curses, she couldn't just tell Rei the truth, not when Azula wasn't here to approve of it, and yet…

The idea of letting this child believe Azula was somehow pining over her vanished, so-called husband was utterly unbearable. Song would be careful, she would hide the full extent of her knowledge as best she could… but as much as Azula didn't seem to mind that Rei would be completely clueless about the past, Song certainly couldn't stand it, not to this extent, not when those were the kinds of conclusions the innocent girl was bound to reach.

"Okay, well… look, I don't have all the answers myself," she said, with an awkward smile that she hoped would masquerade her dishonesty upon speaking those words. "But from the sound of it, you… you haven't heard of anything at all regarding the Princess and, well… why she's like this, these days?"

"Uh… no. I haven't," Rei admitted, lowering her head "Admiral. Zhao didn't really explain anything when he brought me here, and… I didn't want to ask the Princess. She seems so sad, most the time. She's better now, but… when I first arrived, she wouldn't even sit up in bed. She didn't want to eat, either. I don't want to make her feel worse by… by asking questions about things that might remind her of why she's sad. But I guess she's always thinking about it anyway? I suppose she is… though maybe it doesn't make sense for that letter to be for Admiral Zhao. She… she always seemed to want him to leave. The last time he was here… oh, it was when you arrived."

"Yeah, I met him that day," Song said, nodding.

"She was… angry at him? For leaving like he did, and not checking on me?" Rei said, rubbing her elbow nervously. "I'll be okay even if he's not here, but… I guess she was worried about me. I was worried about her, too, but… but I think everything went well that day. Though Admiral Zhao didn't come back after that…"

"Hmm," Song sighed, shaking her head before clasping Rei's shoulder anew.

She guided her to the annex dining room, where they'd likely eat lunch once it was delivered – the three of them would eat together these days, usually quietly, but Song would occasionally talk about anything that crossed her mind to fill the silence, to Rei's amusement and Azula's feigned exasperation. By nighttime, once Rei took off to her room and Song stayed, under the guise of giving Azula some evening massages both for the baby's sake and her wounded shoulder, Song would drop her Wen persona and talk calmly, properly, with Azula. In those moments, Azula would also drop all her walls, often even falling asleep with her head on Song's shoulder after a long conversation. However snappy and prone to bickering as they presented themselves during the day, Song had immediately become a pillar of strength and stability for Azula, one the Princess appreciated more than she could express.

The annex dining room would be a suitable location for Song's upcoming conversation with Rei: Song pulled up a chair, Rei did the same, well out of the field of vision of anyone who might open the room's front door: no eavesdroppers would be able to hear anything they'd say next.

"Okay, so… uh, well, I guess you didn't hear any rumors about anything before you came here?" Song asked, biting her lip. "Admiral Zhao didn't explain things, you said, but… you weren't the only person who worked for him, or were you?"

Rei shook her head, though the look on her face suggested the answer might be closer to 'yes.'

"Well… I was the only permanent one. The only one who lived in the Admiral's estate," she explained. Song's eyes widened.

"Then… you had to go to the market, at least, right?"

"No… he took care of the shopping," Rei said, quietly.

"And you didn't go to school, so… shit. You were even more isolated than the Princess is right now."

"I guess so," Rei said, blushing deeply. "T-though… the Admiral did have guests. And the Princess… she visited him, once. That was the first time I saw her… I made a fool of myself by bowing for too long. I thought… I really thought she'd have forgotten me, or that she'd think I was an idiot after that, but… she's so much nicer than I imagined she could be. But… so different from what she was like, those days."

"Oh?" Song smiled. "What was she like back then? I heard a few things, but never really had a chance to meet her…"

"Well… she had this golden armor," said Rei, with an excited smile. "And she seemed to… t-to glow like the sun, or so. But she seemed so busy and strong, I… I thought she was amazing, like there was nothing she couldn't do. I was confused when Admiral Zhao told me he had to marry her. And then, when I got here, she was… well, lying in bed. I thought maybe she was sick… I guess she is? I've heard you talk about… chi corruption? But then, she's pregnant too, so… it's both things at once?"

"It's both things and more," Song admitted, with a sigh. "I'm glad you got to see her at her heights, though. As far as anyone tells me, she always meant business, and everyone was terrified of getting on her bad side. My aunts, they served her for ages, so they shared a few stories too… just, stories from the past, when she was younger, even younger than you are. Though there's one story from when she was a bit older than you are right now… and going by all the rumors I heard, and this letter we found, well… I think it's a pretty important story to understand what befell her."

"Huh," Rei raised her eyebrows, eager and open to any of Song's upcoming explanations.

"Still… you seriously never heard any rumors about the Princess having a gladiator?" Song asked, tentatively. Rei gasped before shaking her head quickly. "For real?"

"N-no, I… no," she said, shrinking in place. "I only heard… b-before Admiral Zhao took me to his estate, I only heard the Princess found a dragon. T-that was all… but she had a gladiator?"

Song sighed, running a hand over her chin-length hair, pondering briefly just how much she needed to explain. Rei's isolation had been much more severe than she had expected…

"Well, do you know anything about the Gladiator League, for starters? If you don't…" she said. Rei swallowed hard.

"Admiral Zhao has a gladiator too," said Rei, quietly. Song froze: for a moment, she had forgotten Zhao himself used to sponsor Combustion Man… "He's… scary. He would come by for dinner sometimes and I just… wanted to be anywhere but near him whenever he did. You're saying the Princess had one, too…?"

"Uh… yeah, but he wasn't like… like that one," said Song, grimacing. "I'd think, anyway."

"He wasn't?" Rei asked, puzzled. Song smiled and drew in a deep breath.

"Alright, then… several years ago, about seven years, I don't even know exactly, but that's what my aunts said, the Fire Lord asked the Princess to go to the South Pole as his envoy, for some meeting about how to take over the whole place," Song said, waving a hand dismissively. "I suppose you've heard about the Water Tribes, at least?"

"O-oh… yes. They live in the North Pole?" Rei asked. Song nodded.

"And in the south, too," she explained. Rei's eyebrows rose. "The Southern Water Tribe wasn't exactly happy about having a Fire Nation military settlement on their shores, so they tried to fight back against the Fire Nation exactly on the day the Princess visited, and… well, she defeated their leader, and in retaliation for his attack, she turned him into a slave and brought him back to the Fire Nation mainland with her."

"O-oh…?" Rei said, wincing. "I… I didn't know. She… made someone a slave?"

"I think just that one time, but yeah," said Song, biting her lip. "She was a bit older than you are right now, and… well, she really wasn't anything like the woman we know now. She probably was very different from who she was when you met in Admiral Zhao's estate, too. So, uh, well… a few years later, my aunts told me Fire Lord Ozai decided to set up the Princess in marriage with the son of another Admiral, no idea what his name was anymore. The Princess didn't want to marry him, though…"

"No?" Rei asked, puzzled. "And she could just… say no?"

"Well, not really?" Song shrugged. "She was supposed to accept it, but she didn't want to. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands and, as the admiral's son had a gladiator and was a successful sponsor, she decided to find a gladiator for herself and fight him to defend her right to choose her own husband."

"That's… that's why?" Rei asked, surprised. Song nodded.

"She did all this without my aunts' awareness, at first," Song said. "But then she came back from an outing to a very nasty town, and she had that guy with her… the very one she'd made a slave in the South Pole."

"Really?"

"Yup. He had survived for two years and she saw him fighting in the Amateur Arena, a much nastier version of the more famous Gladiator League, from my understanding of it," Song continued. "So she hired him, and after getting him some specialized swordsmanship training, he defeated the gladiator of her would-be suitor and set her free from that particular arrangement."

"That… that's incredible," Rei said, her eyes almost blazing with illusion. "She could do that? Really?"

"Sounds like you're impressed, huh?" Song grinned.

"W-well, it's just… she's really strong," Rei said, grinning enthusiastically. "To stand up to the Fire Lord and… and not marry someone she didn't want? I… I don't think I could ever do something like that…"

"Heh, well, you should take inspiration from her example and be ready to fight for what you want, just the same," Song said, smirking. Rei blushed and shook her head quickly. "Though… I suppose it can be too much to ask?"

"That… that's scary," Rei giggled. "What if I thought I want something, but it's not what I thought it'd be, once I have it? What if I fail, too? T-then, I'd have fought for nothing and… and I'll feel worse about it then, won't I?"

"Uh… huh. Well, damn, I have no idea," Song laughed, her stomach sinking slowly.

The girl's reasoning didn't seem so foreign or incompatible with Song's own living philosophies, back in the day… she simply drifted from place to place, hoping the world would eventually stop tossing her about, as though she were a ragdoll. Without her awareness, however, she had met people who were headstrong, forward, courageous in ways she could only admire… and now, without noticing it, she had become much more like them and less like the young woman who sat before her now. Suddenly, fighting uphill battles, even if the likelihood was that she'd lose them anyway, didn't seem so pointless, not if she could help one of her friends, if nothing else… but she couldn't quite share that information with Rei, could she?

"I don't have anything to fight for like that," Rei said, with a sad smile. "If… if Admiral Zhao thought I should marry someone, I probably would just do it."

"Really? Even if you don't love that person?" Song asked. Rei blinked blankly.

"Would I have to?"

Song froze in place. Something she had thought would be common knowledge, even common sense, didn't appear remotely as instinctive to Rei… she thought marriage was only a political tool, then? Did she even know people out there actually married for reasons other than gaining more status or money…?

"Did I… say something wrong?" Rei asked over her stunned silence. Song coughed, snapping herself out of her thoughts.

"N-no, well, not… not quite, heh. I just wasn't expecting that answer," Song grinned awkwardly. "Sorry to ask this so bluntly, but… did you never see or hear of any couples who married for love? I understand you were really isolated with Admiral Zhao, but… maybe before that?"

"Uh… no," Rei said, swallowing hard. "What I know about love is… well, not much. Do I need to know more about it?"

"I… guess?" Song said, with an awkward smile. "In the end, this story I'm telling you, Rei, is… well, according to the rumors, it's actually a love story."

"Eh…?" Rei blinked blankly before tensing up. "Wait. The Princess… fell in love with her gladiator?"

"And the gladiator fell in love with the Princess, just as well," Song finished. Rei's eyes couldn't have been wider. "Surprised much, huh? I mean, like I said, it's all rumors, but… it's the only explanation that makes sense regarding so much that's happened lately, so…"

"She… loved him?" Rei's eyes shifted about aimlessly, so lost in her own thoughts that she wasn't quite looking at any specific thing at all. "But he was a… a slave? And… not a Fire Nation man? But she's the Fire Lord's daughter. Why did she love… him?"

"Why? Heh, well… I wouldn't know," Song lied with an awkward smile. "I don't know a lot about him, to be honest? My aunts just said he seemed… like a good, handsome young man"

"Handsome? A gladiator can be… handsome?" Rei blinked blankly, apparently even more confused by that concept than over the idea of marriage for love. Song snorted and nodded.

"Believe it or not. Guess the Admiral's gladiator was really ugly, huh?" Song smirked. Rei blushed but nodded shyly, despite her better sense.

"I shouldn't say that, but… I didn't like him," she giggled.

"Well, the Princess's gladiator wasn't like that, apparently," Song smiled. "He was a perfectly nice-looking man, so Princess Azula didn't have terrible taste if she fell for him."

"Good, then," Rei smiled.

"And… it's okay with you, though? That… that she might have had a relationship like that with someone before marriage?" Song asked, surprised by how good-mannered Rei's latest response had been. The girl looked at her, cluelessly.

"Why wouldn't it be?" she said. Song grimaced, unsure of why her cheeks would flush when Rei was supposed to be the more innocent out of them both.

"Well… you know, the thing is the Princess's grief probably comes from, well… having been caught with him," Song admitted, trying to masquerade how painful it was to speak the words aloud. "The Gladiator League was abolished out of the blue one day, and no protests could get the Fire Lord to change his mind. Shortly afterwards, the main Arena, the Grand Royal Dome? It was set on fire, violently. Some witnesses said they saw the Princess's dragon flying out of the fire and rushing away… then, the rumors claimed that she had escaped with her gladiator, somehow. That maybe the Fire Lord had intended to execute him, but she got him out, and took him elsewhere…"

"Really?" Rei gasped. "That sounds so dangerous…!"

"It must have been, no doubt," Song sighed. "Nobody really knows what happened after that… but then, one day, an airship flew into the Capital, and it was said the Princess had been caught and brought home. I… don't know if her gladiator was found with her too, or if she was alone, but he's nowhere around anymore, as far as I can tell. So… he might have escaped while she took the fall on her own, or… he may have died fighting to protect her? Either way, it's… it's really depressing, isn't it? If all this is true, the Fire Lord had her hunted down for having a relationship with the wrong man, punished for all of it, forced her to marry another one against her will… it's no wonder she's so miserable if this is really what's going on, right?"

Rei's amazement at the earlier parts of Song's explanation had been obliterated, replaced by utter desolation. Suddenly, it seemed as though she had unlocked the piece of the puzzle she hadn't wanted or even tried to unravel so far… and instead of distaste and displeasure at Azula's decisions, the young woman appeared distraught for her sake. As much of a defeatist as she might seem to be, she appeared horrified upon learning Azula's ambitions and willful pursuit of whatever she wanted had taken such a dark turn.

"You… really think she lost that much?" Rei asked, softly. "T-the man she loved…? T-though I still am confused about it. Even if he was good-looking… he had to be more than just good-looking if she took all those risks for him."

"He was her partner," Song answered, before catching herself. "At least, that's what everyone says. Maybe they started out in the worst possible way, but… they went through lots of things together. They fought together to save the Fire Nation at least twice, as far as I know…"

"Really? He… why would he try to save the Fire Nation if he was Water Tribe?" Rei asked, puzzled. Well, that was one keen observation Song could exploit, as she smiled and shrugged in Rei's direction.

"You did say he had to be more than just a pretty face for the Princess to grow so fond of him. If he was the kind of man who would help her defend her people, who would stand beside her against any threat or challenge… wouldn't it be easy, even, to develop stronger feelings for someone like that?"

"Huh. I… I suppose," Rei smiled.

"Either way, most of these are just… guesses, in general. But I suppose, going by that letter… all these rumors are probably closer to the truth than the Fire Lord wants anyone to know," Song said, with a sigh. "Anyway, try not to act any differently around her if you can help it, alright? Whether you feel sorry for her or think she deserved all the consequences for her choices…"

"No! How could I…? How could anyone think that?" Rei gasped, horrified. Song smiled.

"Well, believe it or not, some people would. Obnoxious nobles and the sort," she said, with a careless shrug. "It's awful that they'd be this bad about it, yeah, but… that's the kind of thing women are plagued by in the Fire Nation."

"It is?" Rei blinked blankly. Song raised an eyebrow.

"Well… yeah?" she said. "Daring to give yourself to someone outside of wedlock when you're highborn is, uh… a really bad idea."

"Ah. When you're highborn, then," Rei said, with a simple smile. "It's not true for everyone."

"Well… I guess not?" Song frowned. "Though I've never really met anyone who hasn't dealt with these pressures…"

"No?" Rei looked at Song with confusion. "Really? Huh…"

"I mean, well, I've met a lot of people while I worked at the Sanatorium…" Song lied, with an awkward smile. "And they weren't all highborn, but… I never met anyone who wasn't burdened with this sort of stuff, one way or another? And, well… truth be told I'm a little surprised you're not bothered by the Princess's relationship with her gladiator outside of wedlock? If there really was one, well… I don't know how careless she could have been, but the likelihood is she, uh, well… was intimate with him and that's why this whole mess happened? Because it was confirmed she wasn't a virgin anymore, somehow, and…"

"And?" Rei blinked blankly, as clueless at Song's cluelessness as Song was over Rei's unexpected ease to accept all this.

"Just… does none of this bother you at all?" Song smiled awkwardly. Rei cocked her head to the side slightly.

"Does it bother you?"

"N-no! That's not what I meant, only…!" Song swallowed hard, flustered. "Well, maybe I am more highborn than I ever realized I was, eh? This conversation is starting to make me think so…"

"Why?" Rei asked, smiling a little. "You said it doesn't bother you either, so…"

"Well, I mean because I assumed every Fire Nation woman would be raised to believe their bodies are supposed to be pure and pristine and preserved for marriage forever…" Song said, with a shrug, but she smiled afterwards. "I suppose it's even refreshing that you're not like that, come to think of it… though I'm still surprised you can be so mature about it, to be honest. I guess… huh. Maybe you… uh. Damn. I… I shouldn't jump to conclusions, should I? Though…"

"What kind of conclusions?" Rei asked, raising her eyebrows. "Did you think I've done it too? Sex out of wedlock?"

That the innocent young woman would speak of sex so carelessly only reminded Song further of Azula's initial explanations about her maid, back when Song had first arrived. So far, as she'd had no chances to talk to Rei properly, Song had thought the topic wouldn't come up easily… though it inevitably would, if they talked about Azula's circumstances. Yet now she had confirmed Azula was right to feel uneasy over Rei's strange carelessness when it came to any sexual topics…

"U-uh…" Song couldn't manage to utter the sentence properly, feeling like a fool for it. Rei giggled and shook her head, surprising her.

"I haven't," she said.

"You… haven't?" Song said, with a slow, awkward smile. "Heh. W-well… good, then!"

"Good? Is it?" Rei asked.

"Well… you're young still. Probably for the best if you wait until you meet someone you really like," Song said, feeling rather foolish still, her face red as she patted Rei's shoulder.

"Huh. Do I have to?" Rei asked. Song froze. "Have sex with someone I really like, I mean…"

"W-well, no! I mean, not unless you really want to, and they want you too?" Song said, growing increasingly nervous at Rei's questions.

"Good, then," Rei said, grinning more earnestly as she repeated Song's earlier words. "Though… are you okay, lady Wen? You look… um, nervous?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine, I just…" Song said, gritting her teeth before sighing and shaking her head. "Doesn't suit me to be a prude, does it? I'm a midwife, aren't I? I've made a living off the consequences of sex as it is, so I shouldn't be so stupid when talking about it…"

"You were stupid?" Rei asked, surprised. "I… didn't think that. You must be very smart, and you know about medicine and lots of things, so…"

"Well, being smart doesn't really make you immune to being stupid sometimes," Song said, with a nervous smile still. "Look, I just… I must be too used to the way things work in high society. I never really thought you'd think nothing of the Princess's so-called crime…"

"So-called…? Then you don't think it's a crime, either," said Rei, with a smile. "I… don't think it really matters, does it?"

"That she was with anyone before marriage?" Song asked. Rei nodded.

"Why would it?" she asked. "From what I know, people just like having sex. Some do it for money because others like it. It's just like… like gambling, or maybe even riding a dragon moose? It's… it's what some people do for fun. That's all."

"That's… all," Song repeated, eyes wide.

"Do you want me to judge her?" Rei raised an eyebrow. Song scoffed.

"Of course not," she retorted

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Rei decided, with a careless smile. The conversation had taken a surprising turn, but Song managed to smile again at Rei's strange brand of innocence…

Maybe Azula had ideas of her own regarding what Rei's secrets might be, but Song was starting to suspect a possibility, namely based on the girl's latest words… on her complete, casual disregard of sex as a means of entertainment. She didn't want to ask anything else, didn't want the young woman to feel out of place… though she might just think there was nothing to be ashamed of even if Song's guesses happened to be spot-on.

Still… it didn't seem that Rei would think less of Azula because of her relationship with Sokka. Song expected otherwise… she had braced herself for calming down a horrified girl who would find it unacceptable for her lordly father to marry someone allegedly impure… but she had taken it so well, so easily, instead. Perhaps as long as everything was still so theoretical, so casual that Rei wouldn't make much of it, assuming it to be merely rumors, one possibility, rather than the reality Song knew it was.

"But then… we really shouldn't have read that letter," Rei said, her smile fading. "She… she has been writing them for some time. I guess she mostly does it at night… but I found some of her papers once, she was in the bathroom when I arrived, but I didn't know how to read yet, so… it wasn't a problem. I wish my reading wouldn't be one, now…"

"Oh, it's not, Rei," said Song, with a fond smile. "I doubt the Princess will be mad… well, if she ever learns of it. As long as you continue to treat her with proper respect, as you have so far, you should be alright."

"Good, then," Rei smiled. Song sighed.

"As for, me, though? Heh. I don't think I'll be alright at all, no matter what. She already says I'm a pain in the ass, as things are… now she might accuse me of snooping around her things, and she wouldn't even be wrong to say so."

"You weren't snooping…" Rei laughed, as Song shook her head and insisted on the opposite.

Still, as much as she had focused on Rei so far, the contents in Azula's unsent letter had been profoundly disturbing on their own. The final lines… what exactly did she mean when she said it was possible she might fail at living with her mistakes? Did she expect to die for them? Worse yet… did she want to?

She had been in a particularly dark mood that day, and that was part of the reason why Song had encouraged her to go see Xin Long, in the hopes that a reunion between them might raise her spirits. Yet even that was a toss-up… even that might fail to help the Princess altogether, only serving as a reminder of the mistakes she still believed unforgivable…

But she had to live with it indeed. She had no choice but to do so, didn't she? So far, Song had the feeling Azula wanted to ensure the child was born, above all else, so she'd certainly do her best to survive until then… but Song wasn't sure she had any plans, any thoughts, for what came afterwards. What on earth did Azula intend to do in the future? Did she believe there was no future left for her, to begin with…?

---

The refuge was as tall and daunting as ever. The last time she had been near it, Azula had been drenched by the rain as she sobbed helplessly against the door. Each doorway in the building was barred and locked fully, ensuring no one could come in or out at will. Yet, by the base of the refuge paced a single soldier. Azula's eyes narrowed at the lack of better vigilance than that.

"Guess my father really takes for granted that I won't make a run for it anymore… huh?" she mused. Renkai, beside her, raised his eyebrows.

"Will you?"

"No, but it's weird to see any complacency or leniency on his part," Azula said, with a slow breath: Xin Long waited ahead, even if she wasn't sure she'd have a chance to see him or properly talk to him at all. "Shall we, then?"

Renkai nodded: a single guard wouldn't be much to write home about. He could be reduced and defeated easily if need be… but Renkai didn't intend for it to come to that, and neither did the Princess. The less attention they brought to themselves, the less scenes they made, and the less trouble brewed around them, the better chances they'd have to see Xin Long again after this initial, tentative visit.

And so, they stepped under the sun together, to reunite a fallen Princess with her captured dragon.